B&B Nelson New Zealand: Overflow and 'Our Choice' room types with AMBER HOUSE budget tourist lodgings - airconditioned accommodation in heritage Guest House.

AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Bed and Breakfast Guest House (B&B) in Nelson city centre, New Zealand

Overflow Room

Photo of one of our Overflow bedrooms Nelson is the place where most Kiwis, if asked, will say they would like to stay. After you stay here you will know why!

When it is difficult or impossible to find availability in the room you wanted at Amber House, or your budget is very tight and you trust our choice, we have a network of accommodation choices (all within the boundaries of the City of Nelson unitary authority) where we can place you.

Overflow Rooms and buildings vary but all are clean and comfortable and our friends and colleagues will make you more than welcome in their place...

Maximum occupancy of an Overflow Room is usually 2 people (occasionally 3) and obviously facilities vary; usually twin beds with a shared shower room/WC but could sometimes be a double bed with an en suite bathroom. Breakfast is NOT included in the Overflow Room tariff.

In each and every case you will come to Amber House first so that we can register you and answer any questions you may have. Then we take you to your host.

"Our Choice" Room

Sometimes it may happen that, after you have reserved an Overflow Room, we get a cancellation at Amber House and space becomes available in the main house. In this case, if you have a reservation for an Overflow Room, we may be able to accommodate you in Amber House itself in what we call an "Our Choice Room" at the same ultra-low price.

This is where you let us pick your specific bedroom in Amber House - and you are prepared to move bedrooms during the course of a stay of more than one night.
You could get lucky and bag an air conditioned and en-suite "Our Choice Room"; equally there's a 20% chance you might end up having to walk across the hall to your private bathroom. ALL our bedrooms have individually controlled Daikin air-conditioning/heat pumps and are double glazed for insulation and sound-proofing. Four of our five guest bedrooms have the shower and wash handbasin en suite and with three of them the WC is also en suite. In each and every case the WC, shower and handbasin is private to you.
Amber House is connected by fibre optic cabling and consequently has Internet upload speeds that are twenty times faster than all other Nelson accommodation.
Typically TWO beds (but could be one bed if we put you in the Blue Room or Gold Room). Cordless direct dial 'phone with short calls within New Zealand free of charge, colour HD TV, Blu-ray player, digital safe, work desk and chair.

No breakfast is included in either Overflow or "Our Choice Room" tariffs but, if you are staying in an Amber House bedroom, you can order a cooked breakfast of your choice for an additional $17 or a help-yourself uncooked breakfast for $8 per breakfast.
In any event, we will shout you hot or cold drinks and Anzac biscuits when you are actually staying in Amber House!

Amber House does also offer room service. Room service is available at a moderate extra charge payable to the cook in cash when she arrives with your meal.
"Our Choice" Room guests can also order (for a moderate charge) other meals and snacks prepared and served at their convenience.

When you are staying in Amber House on an "Our Choice" basis, it would be best to pack your belongings each morning before you leave Amber House for the day. That way there is less risk of anything getting lost or damaged if we get a last minute booking for the specific room you are staying in and we have to move you to a different room.

Wireless access to a 802.11g and 802.11b high-speed internet connection is available for a small extra charge.

Panasonic cordless phone at Amber House Bed and Breakfast accommodations in the Nelson-Tasman region
of the South Island of New Zealand Rather than ringing the "School Bell" if you need us and we're not visible, please instead use the cordless phone in your room (or the outside telephone hanging to the right of Amber House's front door) to dial 539 0605 (no need to use the South Island area code of 03) to initiate a free local call and your call will be automatically diverted free of charge to the family's cellular (or mobile) number of +64-21-202 4961.]

Please visit this page for information on our call charges...

VERY IMPORTANT: All of the bedroom windows in Amber House are double glazed. If you are assigned a bedroom with the large, German made, "tilt and turn" type of window, it will have cost more than $8000 to install (this type of window is double glazed with argon in the gap and coated with 2 molecules of Gold to reduce infra red emissions) and needs special care when opening or closing.
Please ensure that all of the window is completely and entirely seated in the window frame before you attempt to rotate the handle to the down position to lock it. If you feel any resistance to rotating the handle - STOP immediately before you damage the Austrian precision-engineered mechanism. If you ignore this instruction and carelessly damage our window, you will be charged appropriately!

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Our Quirks

It would be a good idea to hang your towels out to dry on the rotary drying frame in the back garden first thing in the morning as the sunny Nelson climate usually ensures they'll be bone dry within a couple of hours.

[Less environmental stress than switching the heated towel rail on, eh?

Kiwis value their "clean and green" image so we also ask that you turn off your lights, TV, stereo and air conditioning unit when you go out.
Please do NOT switch off our computer (or close the lid of any laptop supplied or it will enter hibernation mode) or then we'll have to go and get George to enter several different Broadband passwords...]

We'll probably take both towels and your washing back to your room if you forget... Ask us for beach towels if that's where you're going.

We don't usually turn down beds unless you are physically handicapped and will change the bed linen every 3 or 4 days.
If you do have an accident and need bed linen changing earlier, don't hesitate to say!

We don't allow guests to use our front loading automatic washing machine as the various dials and buttons can be complicated to explain to guests and they would not be covered by our insurance. If you do need more than just a few items washed with our own load, we charge similar prices to a service wash in a launderette: $7 per washing machine load.
You'll need to hang your items on the rotary washing line and take them down again yourself unless you bribe us with winsome words and pleasing smiles or recipes (grin). We charge $12 dollars per hour (or part) of dryer time if you need to be wasteful and use our electric dryer rather than the rotary clothes line.

We keep the cookie jar well stocked with ANZAC biscuits in the guests' dining room so just help yourself. In summer you can also steal a few strawberries and cherry tomatoes in the back garden on the way back from bringing in your towels or washing... We don't do ironing unless you're going to a wedding or special occasion (20 dollars per hour or part) but can provide you with a steam iron and board and mending materials.

"...The real plus on the service side, is that you will be staying with hosts who really know their neighborhood and can give you the best independent advice about places to eat, shop and visit, unlike hotel staff who don't always live locally and don't know about these things or perhaps get some kind of kick-back for referrals. Wouldn't it be great having your own local source of up-to-the-minute insider information about what's going on? Your hosts can give you useful nuggets of information, such as the many delightful specialty shops...(and) help you make the most of your trip, when time is at a premium..."

We would rather be modest and let our Guest Book speak for that aspect.

We would like to close by mentioning our beds and our breakfasts.
Our beds are comfortable and will ensure you get a good night's sleep. All rooms have alarm clock radios if you have an early start.

All guests can also avail of Swedish Massage and Deep Tissue Therapy for a small additional charge.

NOTE on availability: Although we have 5 double-glazed, guest bedrooms available at Amber House, we don't accept reservations for the main house for more than 4 guests staying at one time. Should a particular bedroom not be showing as available for the entire duration of your planned stay, you may like to book some days in one room and some days in another room that is showing availability. If you then add an appropriate note in the comments field of both of the online booking forms at the time you make both reservations, then, at our discretion and with your agreeement, we may be able to consolidate the two separate bookings so that you spend your whole stay in one room at the cheaper of the two room rates quoted by the online system.

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